Ms Tech

Diamonds on a cellphone are a girl8217;s best friend. Hence, 8220;bling kits8221; of adhesive crystals to adorn phones.

Diamonds on a cellphone are a girl8217;s best friend. Hence, 8220;bling kits8221; of adhesive crystals to adorn phones. And T-Mobile, which swiftly sold out its 400 Juicy Couture bejewelled pink phones, now has a limited-edition cellphone line designed by Diane von Furstenberg. Gucci bag? No, thank you. This year it8217;s about the Dolce 038; Gabbana Motorola V3i, a 400 gold-coloured phone so gilded and so thin it evokes a supermodel.

Companies are trying to get technology in touch with its inner fashionista, marketing to the fairer sex by tickling women with pink and smaller, lighter and easier-to-use phones and devices that speak to a more feminine sensibility. The upshot: Women, who have historically wielded serious power of the purse as consumers, are now buying all kinds of technology for their families and themselves, outspending their male counterparts 3 to 2, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

Today8217;s prototypical girl-techie might look like Natavia Vineyard, 19, who wants her technology to cut a stylish profile. 8220;I always have all the new phones,8217;8217; said Vineyard, who last month traded in an older flip phone for a new Sony Walkman phone. The features8212;built-in media player, radio and video camera8212;appealed to her. But the black color didn8217;t. So she decked it out in faux diamonds. 8220;I try to keep it looking feminine,8217;8217; she said.

It8217;s not a sexist stereotype; women have different preferences, according to a CEA study released this year. Men prefer to watch hi-def TVs, while women frequently use cellphones and portable games.

8220;Women come to the table with a different sensibility when they talk about technology,8217;8217; said Pat Houston, general manager of Yahoo Tech. They think less about the technology itself, and more how it fits with their life, he said. 8220;I would argue it8217;s the new gold standard.8217;8217;

The Nintendo Wii, one of the game systems flying off the shelves this season, was designed in part to appeal to women. 8220;It8217;s a reflection of a change in our corporate strategy a few years ago,8217;8217; when the company faced a diminishing audience for its games in Japan, and decided to reach beyond the targeted young male demographic, said George Harrison, senior vice-president of marketing for Nintendo of America. Nintendo tried to simplify by adding a touch screen to its DS system. With the Wii, it added motion sensors so controllers could be swung like a tennis racket or rotated like a steering wheel to simulate real action. The result: Nintendo8217;s DS system, released two years ago, garnered a 30 percent female audience, up from 5 percent for its older Game Boy machines.

Many manufacturers are also becoming more sophisticated about how they communicate with women. Motorola recently developed a list of what women want 8212;including keyboards with long-fingernail clearance, surfaces that don8217;t rub or trap makeup and features that make it easier to find a device in a purse8212;and is trying to incorporate the items into products.

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8220;You8217;re starting to see women embrace technology and you8217;re starting to see the market talk to them,8217;8217; said Robin Raskin, a Yahoo Tech blogger. 8220;In the early stage that meant talking to us in red and pink.8217;8217;

8212;The Washington Post / Yuki Noguchi